Welcome to episode 206 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!

As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:

http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast

This is the second part of my interview with an accomplished voice actress who just happens to be a former student of mine and one of my class assistants, Lauren Mayfield! Lauren has gone from studying with me in class, to helping me coach my students, to booking work as a professional voice actress, and even securing representation at one of the most prestigious agencies in Los Angeles, Sutton Barth and Venari also known as SBV. I was delighted when she told me that we were both working on the same video game together, providing voices for characters in Starfield by Bethesda. You may also know Lauren’s work in games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III where she plays Raptor, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising where she plays Societte, and Tower of God: New World where she plays Po Bidau Blanc. It’s always so satisfying when I get to watch one of my students navigate the transition to becoming an accomplished colleague of mine in the voice acting world and I’m so proud of Lauren’s achievements!

In the previous episode, we talked about how Lauren got her start as a voice actor. She had loved acting and especially musicals when she was young. Then she’d had the opportunity to work at both Disney World and Disneyland, which she enjoyed thoroughly. However, it wasn’t until she was passed over for a position at Disneyland that she decided to focus more of her attention on voice acting. She took classes in Orange County, California where she was living, and she also took classes with me at Voice Acting Mastery. She was a dutiful actress who tried to do everything right and follow what seemed to be the conventional wisdom at the time about how one could break into voice acting. This included booking parts in anime dubs at first, and then moving on to other projects after that. This was certainly my experience when I started as a voice actor in the late 90’s. Lauren discovered, however, that her path was going to be different. After struggling to make much headway in anime, she finally found her niche in video games which is where her career really took off. Her success in games helped her secure agency representation, which has opened even more career opportunities for her!

In this episode, I ask Lauren what inspired her to become a performer in the first place. She revisits how she loved performing and especially musical theater from a young age, and shares how she had a passion for fantastical, larger than life storytelling. She was eager to explore how she could pursue a career as a performer. Over time, she began to realize that a musical theater career would not give her the kind of stability she desired, neither financially, nor in terms of lifestyle. She didn’t want to have to travel for work, and the life of a theater actor tends to be very nomadic. Voice acting became a way for her to pursue acting, apply her vocal and singing techniques, and still remain close to home. This subject leads quite naturally into a discussion about how important it is to be always checking in with yourself to make sure that you’re pursuing goals that are truly what you want and that you aren’t working towards some accomplishment that won’t give you satisfaction. Lauren and I also discuss how competitive voice acting has become in recent years due to the rising popularity of games, animation, and anime.

After that, I ask Lauren to share her advice for the aspiring voice actor. While she knows that teachers and coaches will often stress how much work it takes to be successful as a voice actor, and Lauren herself can personally attest to the amount of time, effort, and dedication she has put towards achieving her voice acting goals, she also says that it’s important to know when to relax and trust that you’re doing good work, so you can avoid trying to force things to happen. One way to achieve that balance between effort and relaxation is to make sure that you’re as well rounded a human being as possible, with activities and interests outside the field of acting. Another method is to take the pursuit of voice acting less personally and to decouple your own value as a human being from your professional accomplishments. Ironically, the less personally you take things in the voice over industry, the more relaxed you’ll become, and the more authentically you’ll be able to share your own artistry with others. These insights from Lauren are a lovely way to wrap up our discussion, and I’m so glad I get to share them with my listeners!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #206 Here (MP3)

Welcome to episode 197 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!

As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:

http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast

Welcome to the second and final part of my interview with voice actor and theme park voice performer, Josh Petersdorf! You may know Josh from his work in games like League of Legends, Fire Emblem: Engage, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, and Overwatch. He’s worked on the English language dubs of anime shows like Aggretsuko and on live action shows like Project “Gemini”. He’s also the voices of both Megatron and Optimus Prime at the Universal Studios Theme Park during the live action show that takes place before the Transformers 3D ride.

That last time we spoke, Josh shared with me how he became a voice actor. He was inspired to pursue performing at a young age after watching his sisters perform in dance recitals. However, during high school, he focused more on athletics, and it wasn’t until after he was living on his own that he realized that he wanted to pursue voice acting as a career. He moved to LA, started taking classes, and was fortunate enough to be able to book work at the Universal Studios Theme Park and to also get agent representation. He started booking voice over work, but when he landed the role of Roadhog in Overwatch, it definitely took his career to a new level.

In this episode, I ask what inspired Josh to become a performer in the first place. He shares with me how much the artists from his childhood influenced him to try to create things himself, and how his love of pro wrestling and his nostalgia for 80’s cartoons still inform his artistry today! The characters from the entertainment he consumed often served as role models for him and helped shape not only his creative sensibilities but his personal development as well. He and I also talk about how the most successful voice actors are always looking to expand their capabilities and grow into different areas or niches of the industry. And finally, Josh gives me his advice for the aspiring voice actor, which at its core seems to contain a paradox: He suggests that actors both be ready to work hard and also be easy on themselves. He thinks they should both be demanding when it comes to their own skills, but forgiving as well. It’s a fascinating contradiction that I actually think you’ll find very insightful as we explore it in this episode.

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #197 Here (MP3)

Welcome to episode 196 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!

As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:

http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast

I’m excited to share with you the first part of my interview with voice actor and theme park voice performer, Josh Petersdorf! Josh works extensively in games where he uses his booming voice to embody characters such as Galio in League of Legends, Morion in Fire Emblem: Engage, Stonefist in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, and most notably, Roadhog in Overwatch. He’s worked on the English language dubs of anime like Aggretsuko and live action shows like Project “Gemini”. He’s also worked for many years at the Universal Studios Theme Park portraying the voices of both Megatron and Optimus Prime during the live action show that takes place before the Transformers 3D ride. This process involves a stilt walker putting on a large Transformers costume and interacting with the people in line for the ride. Josh then provides the voice for the person in costume, speaking in real time to the park goers and improvising dialogue to keep them entertained. It’s an amazing collaborative performance that is fascinating to watch!

As we begin our interview, Josh explains to me how he got started as a voice actor. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, where he watched his younger sisters perform in plays and dance recitals, and he decided that he wanted to be a performer as well. He got into an advanced theater class at his school when he was in 7th grade, and participated in the debate team. However, when Josh went to high school, he got more involved in sports, specifically water polo, and had less time for acting. After high school, he attended college briefly, but decided to leave college to pursue his interests in music. He made friends with many creative musicians in the Bay area who also had access to all sorts of recording equipment. In addition to making music, he and his friends would have fun doing fan dubs of live action Japanese Power Ranger-style shows like Kamen Rider. Over time, Josh realized that he wanted to pursue acting more, so he eventually moved to Los Angeles with the goal of becoming a voice actor. He started taking classes to develop his skills, and was also working a restaurant job in order to support himself at the time. A friend at the restaurant told him about an opportunity to audition to be a voice for the live Transformers show at the Universal Studios Theme Park. So Josh auditioned and booked the job. As his confidence grew, he was also able to find agent representation, and one day, his agent sent him an audition for a character in a new game from Blizzard Entertainment which turned out to be Roadhog in Overwatch. Josh was then called back and eventually cast as Roadhog which helped his career blossom even more.

Listening to this overview of Josh’s journey towards becoming a professional voice actor, it might seem like his path was relatively straightforward and almost inevitable. What the summary leaves out, however, are all of the challenges, setbacks, and uncertainty that Josh endured on his way to discovering what he truly wanted to do and how to go about achieving his goals. He and I spend the majority of this episode talking in depth about all of these issues. Josh is very candid with me about what he went through and what it took for him to grow both as a person and as a performer. It’s always been my goal with this podcast to share the reality of what it takes to become a successful professional artist, and I’m so grateful for Josh’s willingness to give both me and my listeners these honest insights into his struggles and his triumphs. I think you’ll find his story very inspiring!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #196 Here (MP3)

VAM 159 | Interview with Bob Bergen, Part 3

Welcome to episode 159 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!

As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:

http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast

This is the third and final part of my interview with the voice of Porky Pig himself, Bob Bergen! While Bob is most famous for playing Porky, he’s also played many other Looney Toons characters including Tweety, Marvin the Martian, Speedy Gonzales, and Sylvester Junior! He’s also done work on Disney animated movies, the Star Wars games, and anime as well. His resume is long and varied and he’s a three time Emmy award nominee! Bob has been teaching voice acting classes since 1987 and is a wealth of information and experience! I’m very grateful he spent so much time talking with us!

In the previous episode, Bob and I discussed what inspired him to become a performer. It turns out that being in front of the microphone is his happy place. He takes so much joy from performing characters that he can’t imagine himself doing anything else! We also talked about his audaciousness and how he always seemed to be able to take strong, decisive action towards his voice acting goals. Bob attributes his courage to being a precocious young boy with supportive parents, and while that’s definitely true, I also think that his deep passion for voice acting helped him overcome any nerves he might have experienced. I especially love how he admitted that when Mel Blanc told him how difficult it was to break into voice acting, that Bob didn’t really care. Bob was far more interested in with what he needed to learn and do in order to succeed at voice acting, and he wasn’t really interested in hearing about the odds of success or failure. As far as Bob was concerned, if becoming a voice actor was going to be a difficult journey, so be it. He would succeed regardless because he cared so much about doing it well.

In this final episode, Bob shares with us his advice for the aspiring voice actor. After more than 30 years of teaching experience, he has some great insights into the craft of acting! Bob stresses how important it is to come up with your own original characters. This may seem ironic for someone who is best known for embodying a classic Loony Toons character, but it’s true. Simply imitating existing characters is not enough to build a robust voice acting career. You need to find what unique insight and artistry you can bring to characters in order to differentiate yourself from your competition. Also in this episode, Bob talks extensively about agents, how to approach them, and how to collaborate with them effectively. He then discusses how to balance one’s artistry with business sense. When Bob is playing a character, whether in a recording session or even an audition, he is solely focused on acting to the best of his ability. He’s not thinking about how much money he might be paid to play that character. However, when he’s finished performing, he has to treat voice acting like the business it is. Not only does his agent appreciate his professional attitude, but producers respect it as well.

Bob has done a great job of combining first-rate voice acting abilities, with a business-savvy professional attitude. It’s something we should all aspire to as voice actors. Listen closely, because you’ll learn a lot about how to present yourself in the industry!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #159 Here (MP3)

VAM 158 | Interview with Bob Bergen, Part 2

Welcome to episode 158 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!

As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:

http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast

Welcome to part 2 of my interview with the voice of Porky Pig himself, Bob Bergen! While Bob is most famous for playing Porky, he’s also played many other Looney Toons characters including Tweety, Marvin the Martian, Speedy Gonzales, and Sylvester Junior! He’s also done work on Disney animated movies, the Star Wars games, and anime as well. His resume is long and varied and he’s been nominated for an Emmy award 3 times! Bob has been teaching voice acting classes since 1987 and is a wealth of information and experience! I’m very grateful he spent so much time talking with us!

In the first part of our interview, Bob shared the story of how he broke into voice acting. Ever since he was a kid, Bob wanted to play the voice of Porky Pig and he was relentless in the pursuit of his goal! Before the advent of the internet and easy access to information online, Bob was resourceful enough to use whatever means at his disposal to research famous voice actors and to learn about recording studios. His path into the voice acting world is a clear demonstration that almost anything is possible if you truly set your mind to it.

In this episode, Bob and I talk about what inspired him to become a performer in the first place. It turns out, he can’t imagine himself doing anything else. This is a common refrain I hear from actors. It was also the advice I was given by many of my acting teachers, which was: “Don’t pursue acting unless it’s the only career path that will make you happy.” Acting is a challenging profession. It requires not only great effort and persistence, but also an incredible amount of introspection and honesty with oneself. Those who succeed tend to have a deep level of commitment and unwavering determination. Bob’s dedication comes from the fact that he loves the art of voice acting so much. Even in the beginning, he was so passionate about performing that he couldn’t help himself! He just kept pressing forward in his pursuit of a professional career in voice over.

Also in this episode, we discuss Bob’s mindset and how he was able to be so courageous at such a young age! Fortune favors the bold as the old saying goes, and Bob has an amazing ability to take strong, decisive action in achieving his goals, even when he doesn’t have all the answers ahead of time! It’s an admirable quality that I hope will inspire all my listeners!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #158 Here (MP3)

VAM 157 | Interview with Bob Bergen, Part 1

Welcome to episode 157 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!

As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:

http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast

We have a very special guest on the podcast today! I’m honored to be able to share with you the first part of my interview with a paragon of the voice over industry, Bob Bergen! Bob is most famous for playing the voice of Porky Pig, but his resume is long and varied! In the world of Looney Tunes, he’s also voiced Tweety, Marvin the Martian, Speedy Gonzales, and Sylvester Junior. He’s played Bucky, the squirrel, in the Disney movie The Emperor’s New Groove, where he had long discussions in squirrel speak with Patrick Warburton’s character, Kronk. Bob also plays the voice of Luke Skywalker in both Star Wars games and in the animated series Robot Chicken. In anime, you may know his work as Lupin the Third in the Castle of Cagliostro, and No-Face in Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. Bob’s been nominated for an Emmy 3 times and is a member of both the Television Academy and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He’s also a firm supporter of his fellow voice actors by being active in the actor’s union, SAG-AFTRA. In addition to all of his acting accomplishments, Bob has also been teaching voice acting classes since 1987 and is a wealth of information and experience!

In the first part of our discussion, Bob and I talk about how he broke into voice acting. He became obsessed with voice acting when he was very young, and at the age of 5 he told his mother that he wanted to be Porky Pig. Back then, Bob wasn’t aware of voice acting as a profession and he had no idea how the entertainment industry worked. He just knew that it was his dream to play Porky Pig. That single-minded focus helped keep him on track to achieve his childhood goal!

Bob was born and raised in the mid-west, but fortunately for him, his father got a job that required his family to move to Los Angeles when Bob was 14. Bob took full advantage of this opportunity and began reaching out to voice actors and animation studios in Los Angeles to find out more about voice acting. This was long before the internet allowed easy access to creators and studios. Bob was resourceful and tenacious enough to use whatever information he could get his hands on to learn what it took to work as a voice actor in Hollywood. This applied not only to networking with professionals in the industry, but also to developing his own acting skills as well. Having a plucky attitude can do a lot to get your foot in the door, so to speak, but industry professionals only fully open that door for you when they can tell you have talent.

For example, in this part of our interview, Bob shares with us the story of how he met his hero, the voice actor Mel Blanc who originated the character of Porky Pig. Bob was precocious enough to track Mel down and figure out how to get into a recording session to watch him in action in the booth. While Bob’s sleuthing had led to his first meeting with Mel, Bob also realized that he had a lot to learn about the craft and business of acting before he could become professionally competitive, so he got to work! Bob’s relentless commitment to his goals and his sober, practical approach to achieving them is an inspiration and I’m so glad I get to share his story with you!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #157 Here (MP3)